2010/4/10 Leon Altoff <[email protected]>: > > I'm always interested in the gory detail. The Novoflex is $5 > cheaper,40g lighter and 5 mm thinner than the Gitzo - all are good - > but I can't find it's maximum load capacity on the net.
Hi Leon (ended up writing more than I want to, hope it is clear) I haven't used the Gitzo yet so I can't comment on that but as opposed to Gitzo, Novoflex makes very complete macro and panorama systems consisting of mutually interchangeable parts so you can gradually expand with dual use for quite a number of items. If you look here the Novoflex equivalent to the Gitzo, i.e. the base model 'PANORAMA' is actually $90.90 cheaper http://www.novoflex.com/en/products/panorama-photography/panorama-plates/ Scroll down a bit for the ones I use, 'PANORAMA=Q' and 'PANORAMA=Q PRO'. I am extremely happy with both of them under use with rigs weighing up to 5 kilos plus (sometimes massive) leverage factor. There is no shakiness and no sign of stiction or torsion/distortion. Novoflex produces in-house to very tight specs, everything is laser cut or CNC machined, their service is truly excellent and so is their engineering. I don't know the exact load-bearing specs but I think they'd beat the Gitzo (and I can find out if you want). The reasons I recommend Novoflex over Gitzo in this particular case are: Since I feel it is better to place the plate between ballhead and rig rather than between tripod and ballhead (why rotate additional weight and have an additional source of angle/levelling errors?) I feel the plate might as well have quick release included - 'PANORAMA=Q' is fully Arca Swiss / Markins / RRS / you name it compatible and you'd still save fourty bucks on the Gitzo. Really very nice. Plus it can stay on your ballhead all the time assuming you use Arca style QR. The 'Q PRO' costs two Gitzos but if you have the money to burn (quote from Novoflex) it is quite convenient: With the rotary selector button 8 different click-stop-positions (angle steps) can be set. The adjustment possibilities are from 360° = stepless, 60° = 6 click-stops, 45° = 8 click-stops, 36° = 10 click-stops, 30° = 12 click-stops, 24° = 15 click-stops, 20° = 18 click-stops, 15° =24 click-stops to 10° = 36 click-stops. With the crossed spirit levels the panorama plate (PANORAMA=Q PRO) is aligned accurately. This is extremely useful if you ever want to upgrade to shooting multi row or sphaeric panos. Less stitching issues with reproducible angles. And so on, bla bla bla. If you look at their panorama and macro systems side by side, you can easily see how things fit together and define your starting point. Meaning of course you don't have to lug around separate pano and macro kits, I can only repeat that, it is a big weight saver =) Cheers Ecke -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
